“We Are Here” Stories (List View)

Palm Beach County residents were asked:

Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.

The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).


Sep 6, 2018

Coming to the city

I was in Haiti .Things was really hard so my family moved to the states and ended up in Boynton Beach. Things was different but was accepted it. All of crime and police lights.
Sep 19, 2018

Sad but happy days

I remember there was an incident of a boy getting shot by my house. The whole city was not so much shocked because we know how it is nowadays. But the thing is everybody in the community was there for the parents and family like we all were family.
Oct 31, 2018

Life after school- Kene

When I was growing up I was always home alone. My mom worked 6 days a week from about 10am to 10pm so I was normally by myself. Sometimes some of the bad kids from the neighborhood would come around and I would pretend I wasn’t home because if I opened the door and they knew I was alone, then they would likely come into my house and take or do whatever they wanted.
Nov 18, 2018

Grandparents- Rickia

Growing up in my neighborhood was fun we had lots of fun but segregation was not too far over. So my grandparents still didn’t let me go outside with them and i didn’t live with my mother i saw no wrong with the white kids but she believed that they looked down on us.
Nov 5, 2018

America

Learning English was important to me .I had to learn and learn fast cause it’s a lot going on around boynton. I came to America when I was 17 and things was different.
Nov 8, 2018

Basketball

Basketball really save my life. If I wasn’t at the basketball courts I would of been selling drugs.Not that many options around here.